After 24 hours of talks, EU leaders have struck today (8 February) a deal on the 7-year budget clamoring success, but have set themselves on a collision course with Parliament, which prepares to fight off the decision to cut spending that reflects austerity undertaken by many EU countries.
The long-term EU budget for 2014-2020 agreed today (8 February) is smaller than it was back in 2007-2013. It goes down to 1% from 1.12% of EU GNI. It is the first net reduction to the EU budget in the Union’s history.
The EU leaders’ agreement sets the figure for “commitments” – the maximum amount of money allotted during the seven-year period – at €960bn, while budget “payments” – the amount of money that can actually be spent – have been severely reduced by €34bn to €908.4bn.
The most visible difference appears to be the increased rebates for Netherlands (from €650 to €695 million per year) and for Sweden (from €160 to €185 million per year), as well as a new country, Denmark receiving a rebate.
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Parliament political leaders say will reject deal
(...)“The European Parliament cannot accept today's deal in the European Council as it is. We regret that Mr Van Rompuy did not talk and negotiate with us in the last months,” the leaders of the four largest political groups stated in a press release published before the summit ended.
Joseph Daul (EPP), Hannes Swoboda (S&D), Guy Verhofstadt (ALDE), Rebecca Harms and Daniel Cohn-Bendit (Greens/EFA) slam the agreed EU budget, saying it risks to lead to structural deficit. “Large gaps between payments and commitments will only store up trouble for the future and not solve existing problems,” the four leaders stated.
European Council President Herman Van Rompuy said the difference between commitments and payments was in the order of 5% and the EU executive had taken measures to narrow it down, not allowing for the deficit to mushroom
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